


I'll Be Here

by Meghan8awesome



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Death, I don't even know what to tag this guys, It's just some sadness with a happy ending, Lance has been through a lot guys, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Matt Loves Lance a lot, Moving On
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-21
Updated: 2018-11-21
Packaged: 2019-08-27 00:52:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16692244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meghan8awesome/pseuds/Meghan8awesome
Summary: Lance had been happy once. He wasn't sure if he could be happy again but maybe, with the blessing from someone who mattered more than anything, he could try?





	I'll Be Here

**Author's Note:**

> Hey look! Meghan's writing more sadness! I love Latte and Klance so this was hard to decide what exactly I wanted it to be. I listened to the same song for like 3 hours while writing this and it's a hot mess but I wanted to share my sad thing with you guys! Anyway, I cried writing this. Have fun!
> 
> Title comes from the song of the same name from Ordinary Days by Adam Gwon. It makes me cry god dammit, and I totally recommend listening to the song while reading this for that extra oomph of emotional pain.

              His phone is ringing.

              That’s the first thought Keith has when he’s woken by the buzzing noise from the coffee table. He’d evidently fallen asleep while watching the movie.

              He reaches for his phone, wondering why someone would be calling him at 11:30 on a Thursday. He checks the caller ID.

              It’s Lance.

              He answers.

              “Hey Lance, what’s up? You don’t usually call this late.” Keith says, his voice scratchy from sleep.

              “Keith? I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you, but can you come meet me somewhere? I really need to talk to you.” He hears Lance say. There’s an emotion in Lance’s voice that he can’t quite pin down.

              “Of course Lance, where do you want me to meet you?”

              “By the fountain in the park on 10th street?” Lance asks, sounding a little unsure now.

              “Give me ten minutes?”

              He hears Lance sigh in relief, “Perfect, thank you Keith.”

              “It’s no problem Lance, I’ll be there soon.” Lance mumbles a goodbye as they hang up.

              Keith launches himself off his couch to grab his jacket and gloves. He hops into his boots and grabs his car keys. And just for good measure he brings the little box he’s kept in his jacket pocket for a week.

              Keith hadn’t asked Lance yet, but they had a long conversation about what they wanted from their future together. If they had a future together. Keith hopes so, he really likes Lance and they’ve been dating for a year and a half and it feels like it might be time to ask.

              Keith locks up his house and gets in his car, driving carefully in the snow, despite how worried he is by Lance’s late-night phone call.

              He gets to the park in record time even with his careful driving. He parks and hops out to head towards the fountain Lance specified.

              He sees his boyfriend standing by the fountain, hands in his jacket pockets. His eyes are closed but he’s got his face tilted to the sky and Keith can see the tears running down his cheeks.

              He approaches slowly, so as not to surprise the other man.

              “Hey Keith.” Lance says suddenly, “Thanks for coming.”

              “Lance are you okay?” Keith asks worriedly, walking up and standing next his boyfriend.

              “Can I tell you a story before I answer that?” Lance opens his eyes and looks over to Keith.

              “I guess?” Keith answers confused.

              “You moved here two years ago. The first person you met from our circle of friends was Pidge, but did you know Pidge had a brother?” Keith shakes his head no, “Well Pidge had an older brother.”

              “When I moved here seven years ago I lived in a little apartment about four blocks east of this park.” Lance takes a deep breath. “I’d been in the city for six months, it was January and it was freezing. I was walking home from work at my old job, through this park. I was walking by this fountain, when I slipped on a patch of ice. I didn’t make contact with he ground though, some random guy caught me midair. We ended up in this crazy dip pose and it was the weirdest thing. He gave me this terrible pickup line, ‘Falling for me already I see’ before he helped me stand up. I thanked him and was just about to walk away when he asked me what I was doing the next day.”

              Keith has no idea what’s going on, but he continues to listen anyway.

              “He told me that he’d wait for me, right here, next to this fountain. Said that just in case there was someone else waiting for me here, his name was Matt and that he’d be here at 5, and then he walked away. Naturally I had to find out if he was actually going to do it, so I showed up here, at 5pm and there he was.” Lance huffs, almost amused.

              “We went for dinner and a walk around the neighbourhood. He walked me home and kissed me goodnight. Our next date was the week after, we went to the movies. We saw something terrible and I can’t even remember the title, but it was one of the best nights of my life. We had been dating for like eight months when he turns to me in the living room of our apartment and asks me to marry him. We got married in October the next year. Six days before Halloween.” The tears are flowing strong down Lance’s cheeks and Keith can only watch as they glisten in the moonlight.

              Lance takes a steadying breath, “It was a little ceremony, only close friends and family, Pidge was our DJ for the reception. We started saving for a little house with a yard, so we could get a big fluffy dog. We talked about adopting some kids down the line and we visited my family in Cuba and we had dinner with his family twice a month. And before I knew it our first anniversary had arrived. We were going to spend it at home, but Matt had to grab something from work, so I went to the store to get stuff for the fancy dinner we had planned. I was on my way home when I heard the sirens.”

              Keith remembers reading something in the news about a disaster that had claimed dozens of lives in October, about four years ago.

              “I was worried, so I hurried home and turned on the news. Matt had to take that damn bridge to get home from his office, so I went to the phone to wait for him to call and tell me he’d be late. But the voicemail that was on our answering machine wasn’t what I was hoping for. Turns out he was on the bridge when it collapsed, and he didn’t make it. He’d left me a message to say he’d picked up some champagne for dinner and chocolate covered strawberries,” Lance inhales sharply, “and that he loved me.”

              He looks back up at the stars before continuing, “The reason I’m telling you this is because something happened today that changed everything. Did you know you were my first foray back into dating after Matt? I waited and waited until I knew I was ready to do it again. But I was walking downtown, past the new bridge, and I stopped at the memorial underneath. I found Matt’s name and just started crying, then I swear to god I hear Matt’s voice.” Lance looks at Keith again, the tears had stopped.

              “He said, ‘You can move on now Lance, it’s okay. I’ll still be here, beside you like always. Even if you decide that it’s time to get rid of my knickknacks and take my ring from around your neck and put it away. I’ll still be here. You don’t have to hide away from the world anymore, go to our old haunts and enjoy life. Don’t let it pass you by, you don’t have to cry anymore. And when you find someone, who loves you as much as I do and treats you right, who makes you want to be happy again, tell him yes. Tell him,’ yes Keith I will marry you.” Lance whispers the last bit and Keith is shocked.

              “I never thought I’d feel like this ever again. I never thought I’d want this ever again. But when you mentioned last week that you wanted to think about getting married, I couldn’t help but feel excited and terrified. I was over the moon until I remembered what it was like the first time. How much it hurt losing him. What happened this afternoon lifted a huge weight off my heart. I finally feel ready. Ready for you to put that ring you’re hiding in your pocket on my finger. Ready to promise the rest of our lives to each other. And I can say with full confidence that Matt would have loved you and I can just hear him saying congratulations in my ear.” Lance smiles, the tears start up again, but they don’t seem nearly as sad.

              “I want to marry you Keith. I want to marry you because you’re so wonderful and you make me so happy and I can finally tell you how much I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I called you here because I needed it to be here. I needed to tell you that I’ll be here beside you for as long as you’ll have me. That’s why I called you. And to answer your question, I’m not okay. I’m so much better than okay, because I can finally give you absolutely everything I am.” Lance’s smile widens impossibly, his eyes scrunching closed.

              “So Keith, what do you say? Wanna get married?”

              Keith stands there frozen in shock. He brought the ring more out of habit then anything else and it sits heavy and warm in his pocket.

              He pulls it out and stares at the box.

              He’d gotten a matching set, so they could both show the world who they belonged with. But what Lance had just told him made him pause. It honestly explains a lot. Lance had been cautious to say the least, when they had first started dating. He’d been guarded, and Pidge had been protective and almost against them going out.

              It all changed when Lance had brought him to a dinner with the Holts. Keith had been confused about why they had gone in the first place, but Lance had been ridiculously close to the family, turns out he’d been part of the family.

              “You wanted their approval. You wanted them to like me, to see how we were together. I was wondering why they looked at me funny that night at dinner, they were worried. They were worried I was a replacement for the man you lost.” Keith realizes.

              “Pidge wanted to stab me with a butter knife. But you convinced them.” Lance shakes his head in fond exasperation.

              “What changed their minds?” Keith asks. He doesn’t remember doing anything special that night.

              “You made me laugh.” Is the response.

              “I make you laugh all the time, don’t I?”

              “Yes, but I hadn’t laughed hard enough to squirt wine out of my nose since Matt died. They saw how happy you make me. How much you aren’t him, and that’s the best part. You are not him and you’re never going to be him and I’m so in love with you that I’m dizzy with it everyday. I don’t want another Matt, I want you.” Lance explains softly. He moves closer to Keith and takes his empty hand in his. “I want you for as long as you’ll have me.”

              “I love you Keith.”

              Keith feels a smile spread across his face.

              A tear slips down his cheek as he whispers, “I love you too Lance.”

              Lance leans up that little bit to place a soft kiss on Keith’s lips.

              When the kiss ends, Keith takes a step back, “Since you’ve made it very clear, I don’t think this is necessary but I’m going to do it anyway.” He gets down on one knee in the snow, lifting the box in his hand and opening it.

              “Leandro McClain, will you marry me?”

              Lance falls to his knees in front of Keith and throws himself, crying, into the taller man’s arms.

              “Yes!” He exclaims in between sobs. Keith wraps his arms around Lance and holds him tight while the Cuban cries into his shoulder. These were definitely happy tears.

              Once Lance has calmed down enough, Keith lets go and pulls the open box between them to show off the matching pair of rings.

              Keith takes the smaller of the two rings out of the box and pulls Lances left hand up in between them. He slides the ring onto Lance’s finger and places a kiss on the back of his hand.

              He hands Lance the ring box.

              Lance looks at the box for a moment before he delicately removes the second ring and grabs for Keith’s left hand. He slides the ring onto Keith’s finger and holds the hand in both of his for a moment. He stares at the rings now on both of their hands, then throws himself once more into Keith’s arms.

              They kiss once more before Keith pulls Lance up and they run to Keith’s car. They get in and drive off to Keith’s little house with a big yard to celebrate.

              And left alone in the park is a tall man with tawny hair and a huge smile on his face. He had seen everything that had transpired between the two men, just like he had seen everything for the last four years since that bridge decided to collapse underneath him.

              He watches the man he loved run off into the night.

              “I’m happy for you Lance. I’m glad you let him in.” He whispers.

              Matt turns away from the path the two men had taken and moves to sit on the rim of the fountain. He doesn’t disturb the snow on the edge.

              “I’ll be right here.” He promises.

**Author's Note:**

> Yay! The sad is over! That was fun! I have some more Latte stuff on the way as well as some Klance stuff I've been hiding for a bit but we'll get there. I got myself a massive AU for Keith and Lance that I've left on the back burner for a couple months now but it's nipping at me so I'll start up again on that (First chapter is written so maybe it'll see the light of day before season 8 drops? Who knows!)
> 
> As always, let me know what you think! I don't reply often cause I'm still kind of new to this whole fanfiction thing (posting wise at least) but I still love hearing from everybody!


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